Currently in development, its key elements will include:

 

Schools will be able to review their own eSafety practices against internationally-agreed standards. When they put forward evidence of their practice, they can be accredited as an eSafety-certified school.  On completion of the self-assessment process, they will receive a suggested action plan to enable them to develop further their levels of eSafety practice.

 

The portal will provide schools with an ever-growing set of resources: eSafety advice and guidance, lesson plans and policies with updates on national strategies and other key developments. It will also host an online community of users and experts who can share examples of effective practice.

 

The eSafety Label (http://www.esafetylabel.eu/ is a multi-stakeholder project which has come about because a number of leading companies (Kaspersky Lab, Liberty Global, Microsoft, Telefonica) and European Education Ministries (Belgium-Flanders, Italy and Portugal) recognised the growing needs of schools for assistance and decided to join forces with European Schoolnet to address the gap.  The consortium has been supported in its actions through Ministries of Education and educational organisations in Austria, Estonia and Spain.

 

Before starting development, extensive research was carried in different countries, including Austria, Belgium-Flanders, Estonia, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the UK.  The countries were chosen to guarantee good representation of high to low technology schools and varying eSafety legislative and pedagogical frameworks. The research included extensive desktop research and stakeholder interviews.

 

In February 2012, European Schoolnet published a report describing the research phase and the specific design process of the portal, which took place in June to December 2011.